Angle pin connectors of this class are typically arranged on an electronic board or printed circuit board and are used to establish a connection for receiving a multi-pole plug in the area of the printed circuit board, where the plug or the cable exiting from the plug exits from the angle pin connector in parallel to the surface of the printed circuit board for space reasons in the case being considered.
The connection pins of an angle pin connector have solder-side ends for connection to the strip conductors arranged on the printed circuit board as well as patch plug-side ends for receiving plug pins or contact prongs of an electrical connection plug. The patch plug-side ends are arranged in angle pin connectors at right angles to the soldered ends in order to thus make possible the desired exit direction of the connection plug or connection cable from the angle pin connector in parallel to the printed circuit board.
Besides the prior-art angle pin connectors, in which the connection pins or angle pins are arranged in a plug housing of their own, for example, extrusion-coated with a housing material, and in which the angle pins are thus held by the plug housing very firmly and immovably, multi-row angle pin connectors are also known, in which the specified spacings between the pins of the angle pins are maintained by a narrow strip only.
However, the latter angle pin connectors, though being especially inexpensive and, moreover, compact, have the drawback that the angle pins of such connectors are protected insufficiently against displacement of the patch plug-side ends in the axial direction of these ends. The forces that bring about such an axial displacement of the patch plug-side ends are especially plugging forces, which are transmitted during the plugging in or even during the pulling off of the corresponding electrical connection plugs. If these plugging forces exceed a certain value, the patch plug-side ends of the angle pins can be pushed into the angle pin connector in the prior-art angle pin connectors of a simple design.
Such excessively strong plugging forces may occur, for example, when contact pins or contact prongs are deformed, contaminated or corroded or when the plug is not moving exactly in parallel to the contact pins during insertion but is inserted in a tilted position. As a result, one or more of the angle pins may then be displaced by their corresponding counterpart in the plug from their desired position and bent.
However, such a deformation of connection pins is problematic because they may cause especially contact problems, and the intended flow of current is thus no longer reliably guaranteed in the deformed connection pins affected. The deformation of individual angle pins may even cause short-circuits in the area of the angle pin connector, especially when plug-side, inner angle pins are deformed to such an extent that they come into contact with the outer connection pins located at the same level in the other row.
It has not hitherto been possible in multi-row angle pin connectors to protect the connection pins arranged in the patch plug-side row or the soldered ends of these connection pins in a simple but effective manner against the displacement mentioned or from bending, because the pin row arranged on the patch plug side, i.e., the inner pin row, is precisely covered by the outer pin row. Therefore, only the angle pins of the outer pin row have hitherto been often supported, but the problem mentioned at the beginning, namely, the risk of bending during pushing in and possibly also during the pulling out of the plug, has continued to be present in the angle pins of the inner pin row.